The Meaning of War
by Katsushika Kahori
Summary: A little flashback on Arthur's part and a little sneaking suspicion on Alfred's. Good thing America has never really had a problem with jumping the gun. XD


**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Sadly. Though if I did I'd probably just muck it up anyway. XD**

SORRY IF IT'S OOC. X'0

_This is my first try at writing for a fandom (though not my first dive into it wahahahaha) so please be kind~ Or I might cry. I am very immature and dislike criticism after all. ^^_

And don't forget to read my notes at the end my lovelies! 3

"That idiot."

England was walking laps around his house, and had been for the past two hours.

"What in the world does he think he's going to accomplish?" He shook his head. Oh sure. He knew it hadn't been solely Alfred's decision to vie for independence. Though a representation of the country as a whole, they were unable to over-rule choices made by its people; they were simply swept along with its rulings.

"Hey!" A loud voice interrupted his thoughts, "Get your head outta the clouds!"

Groaning, Arthur turned to see the very person who was occupying his mind.

"Alfred." He muttered curtly, standing impossibly straight and still. Why now? Damn it all to hell.

"How long you been canterin' 'round yer kitchen?" Alfred slurred with a lopsided grin. Arthur flinched; that language butchery!

"Oh, not long, I assure you."

Spinning around he sauntered towards the living room as gracefully as he could. This was the last thing he needed. He rubbed his temples at the sound of footsteps mirroring his own; the foul git was following him.

"You shouldn't turn your back on my Iggy baby, I might surprise attack you." Alfred joked. "Besides… I'm feelin' pretty good with this whole revolution thing now."

That pushed Arthur over the egde.

"Oh, NOW you agree with it?" he raged as he spun around to face the candid country.

Alfred shrugged. "Well, shit… I did in the beginning too, you know." His eyes were wide and innocent as they stared down at Arthur. At the blank look the Brit was sending his way Alfred continued. "I mean… Bunker Hill. Come on, you know that that was inspiring!"

Arthur snorted. "Get the name of your fights correct at least, you detestable twit. It wasn't ON Bunker Hill. It was Breed's Hill."

Alfred responded with a confused look for a moment before comprehension dawned on his features. "So you DO pay attention!" He smiled widely.

"Of course I do!" Arthur said in disbelief. "You're fighting ENGLAND." He raised an eyebrow. Really? Was he truly this thick?

"Oh well… I suppose if you put it that way…" Alfred trailed off, his gaze sliding away to some remote corner of the room.

"Did you NEED anything?" Arthur asked pointedly, tapping a foot.

"Oh well…" Alfred scratched the back of his neck distractedly. "I was actually wondering… if you got… that… thing… we sent you…" He refused to turn his gaze back to his conversation partner.

"You mean that bloody Olive Branch Petition?" Arthur asked. At the slight nod from Alfred he added "Did you really mean that?"

"Well, of course not!" Alfred blurted out passionately. "That was a load of crap but uh…"

"We seem to be on the same page at least. I don't suppose you pay enough thought to your people to realize that there was a second letter that made its way?"

"Uhh…" The awkward look on Alfred's face clearly stated that he did in fact know of John Adams letter. The discontent, however, quickly became determination as he raised a fist in the air. "I always knew there were people of integrity in America! Come on Arthur, you HAVE to admire the tenacity of it all. How… AWESOME it all is!" His eyes were shining excitedly by now. "It's so inspiring!"

"No, I DON'T have to bloody be inspired!" Arthur burst out. How could he be? Did Alfred truly think for one second that he'd be happier without his little colony waiting for him at home? How could he do this after all the years they'd spent together?

"Come on Arthur." Alfred begged, leaning a little closer. "You and I both know this isn't because I don't want to live here anymore."

"Oh, really? Then what is it about exactly?" Arthur questioned turning his face away from the overzealous expression facing him.

"Freedom of course! Freedom and the right to choose our own lives." Alfred replied passionately. "We want to be able to go where we want and keep our houses to ourselves! I dunno 'bout you but I prefer to sleep by myself at night." Alfred laughed, nudging Arthur in the ribs.

Arthur lowered his head, rubbing where Alfred's elbow had dug in. "That's not how you used to feel." He mumbled dejectedly.

Suddenly what he had said caught up with his brain. He glanced up quickly to see Alfred staring at him with an astounded look on his face.

"What did you say?" Alfred breathed.

"Nothing, you blithering idiot!" Arthur yelled turning red all the way to his boots, his eyes wide. His shoulders were shaking from the effort it took to not turn tail and run as far away as possible.

"No, Arthur, what did you say?" Alfred reached forward and grabbed the others sleeve. "Did you… Do you miss me?" Alfred's eyes were wide and shining with what seemed to be some kind of hope and happiness.

Arthur shook him off and spun on his heels. "Of course not you ungrateful little wanker!" He squeezed his eyes shut, one second, two, three. After a couple minutes he chanced a glance behind him. Alfred was gone; out the door already. Not to come back, thought Arthur bitterly. Why the hell had he said that…?

His prediction had been correct and he had not seen Alfred again until 1781 in that sodding rain storm in that war torn field. It was a painful memory and most certainly not the way he'd wanted to reunite.

Tearing himself from his thoughts, he glanced across the table only to see Alfred, now independent for over two centuries, throwing a water bottle at Russia.

"Why would you do that?" He yelled, his eyes bugging out. "There's no way you could coat the whole world in snow!"

"It's not any stranger than some of your ideas mon beau." Francis interjected.

"So immature…" was muttered from another corner of the room.

"Oh! Swell. I'd LOVE to hear this!"

Romano slammed his hands on the table in anger. "Everyone just SHUT UP."

"Settle down, amor." Antonio shushed him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Romano responded by turning beet (or tomato) red and shrugging his hand off.

"Don't you try to help him again!" Romano pointed towards America. "I swear if you do I'll never come home again!" the angry Italian insisted staring straight at Antonio.

"Oh-ho! And how did THIS little tidbit get discovered?" Francis chuckled, watching Antonio attempt to hug Romano, while on his other side Feliciano was doing the same.

Just as it was escalating into what was sure to be a fist fight, the loudest of the nations yelled that it was clearly time for a lunch break and they all had 50 minutes to get themselves under control.

Having nowhere else to go, Arthur decided to just sit in the air conditioning of the conference room. Pulling out a thermos he clucked his tongue at the brilliance of whoever had invented such a wonderful device. Hot tea on the go was one of life's few up-sides.

"Hey… Arthur." A tentative voice asked from over his left shoulder spooking him and causing the thermos to slip from his grasp, spilling hot tea all over his lap. "Oh! Shoot! I'm real sorry! Hey, hey… I'm real sorry."

"At least say it correctly, you bloody yank!" Arthur hollered. "It's 'I'm really sorry'."

There was silence for a few seconds as Arthur attempted to decide whether to try and sop up the tea or skip out on the rest of the meeting to get a fresh pair of pants. Ludwig would undoubtedly be extremely upset were he to skip out but… The tea was quite uncomfortable…

"Hey… Arthur…"

"WHAT." He spun around in the chair and found himself nose to nose with Alfred. His eyes widened and he stuttered for a moment before finally going silent.

"I had a question." The American said cheerfully.

"What…?" Arthur asked again, this time cautiously.

Without distancing himself Alfred muttered "I was thinking the other day… Remember the last time I went to see you during the revolution?"

Arthur felt his stomach drop, but he nodded curtly. Of course he remembered.

"Well… I was trying to figure out what you'd said." Alfred's breath swirled across Arthurs face and the increase in heat only added to the red that was blossoming across his cheeks.

"Y-y-you twat." Arthur mustered all the courage he had to attempt to sound cross. "How can you remember something like that?" His heart was beating just a tad bit faster. "It's ancient history."

Alfred cracked a huge smile. "There! That's the way yer 'sposed tah talk!" He laughed loudly. "But seriously… 'Cause it sounded to me like you were trying to say you missed me…" He glanced from side to side before continuing, "Is it true? Did you miss me?"

Arthur's brain was currently disengaged and he couldn't come up with an appropriate response so instead he sat there numbly while Alfred gazed at him.

"'Cause… I mean, is that why yer always my ally 'n stuff? In all the wars and what-not…"

"That's not… Of course I wouldn't-" Arthur sputtered indignantly.

"And the War of 1812; was that to try and get me to come back?" Alfred shook his head, chuckling softly. "Honestly Arthur, you should have known that that would only make me fight you more."

"Well of course that's not- I wouldn't dream of- A gentleman never-!"

He was silenced by lips on his own. He blinked a couple times. What was happening…?

He shoved against Alfred's chest with all his might, which was quite a lot, and sent him tumbling down onto the ground.

"Wow, quite a shove Iggy!" Alfred said happily from the floor.

"What the ruddy hell was THAT?" He spat.

"A kiss." Alfred answered simply. "Didn't you like it?" He cocked his head to the side.

"Well that's not the point!" Arthur froze. "No! No, I mean that's entirely the point!" He closed his eyes; the fight was already lost.

"Hey… Arthur. Open your eyes." The last part was said softly, all traces of the surfer accent gone.

Slowly cracking open his eyes he was met with bright, sky blue ones. He tried to back up but found his back to the table. Trapped.

"Hey, Arthur. Guess what?" Alfred's smiled mischievously. "I'm gonna 'tap off'."

Arthur's eyes widened. Did he mean…?

"You." Alfred growled, grinning hugely and lunged.

*tap off: to seduce someone who you find sexually attractive. XD

**NOTES:**

~The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on a smaller hill a few miles away called Breed's Hill. The original command given to General Artemus Ward was to arm Bunker Hill, which overlooked Boston Harbor. Ward however, sent Colonel William Prescott and 1,200 men to Breed's Hill which was lower and more vulnerable. Though the colonists lost the fight in the end due to a shortage of ammo, it was decidedly a great spike to morale. "They had only lost because they couldn't fire anymore."

~The Olive Branch Petition was originally written by Thomas Jefferson, but almost completely rewritten by John Dickinson. It stated that the colonies were not looking for separation but merely fair trade and tax regulation rights and suggested a negotiation with King George III on such terms that the colonies receive taxes equal to that of British citizens or no taxes and instead strict trade regulations. However, confiscated and received by the king at the same time was a letter written by John Adams to one of his friends stating that in his opinion war was inevitable. The king discarded the petition, but this gave the revolutionists what they needed to push independence on those still unsure.

~Unfair taxation, limited westward expansion, and involuntary quartering of British soldiers were mainly what united the colonies.

~During the revolution, in about 1776 France supplied much needed financial and military aid to the Americans. It was set up under a dummy corporation run by Pierre Beaumarchais. Spain also secretly added funds and became an unofficial ally in 1779 when it declared war on Britain.

~In 1892, Scottish chemist and physicist James Dewar invented the vacuum flask, which is also known today as the thermos. XD

~The War of 1812: The British were impressing hundreds of American ships and refused to come to terms of a treaty. They blockaded France, stole over one thousand American ships and when the British ship Leopard opened fire on the American ship Chesapeake when it refused to be boarded it created an international incident. On June 18, 1812 America declared war on Britain (again) after Thomas Jefferson's "peaceful coercion" (an embargo) failed and ended in economic disaster for merchants.

_Hope you guys liked it~ :3_


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